Buckaroos move to new district with UIL realignment

After a successful football season that saw Breckenridge High School come out on top as the District 4 champions, the recently released UIL district alignments have moved the Buckaroos to a new district with a completely new set of opponents.

BHS stayed in the same Conference and Division – 3A-D1 – but moved from District 4 to District 3. The newly realigned district includes Breckenridge, Clyde, Early, Eastland, Tuscola Jim Ned and Wall.

“I think it’s a plenty tough district,” said Buckaroo Head Coach Casey Hubble. “Everybody but Early, I think, was in the playoffs last year, so I think it’s going to be a tougher district. I like where we’re at. I think our matchup is good. We’re ready for the challenge.”

Hubble also has announced the following pre-district lineup: Jacksboro, Comanche, Cisco, Brock and Dublin.

“I like where we’re at as a program,” Hubble said. “We’re going to keep doing what we do, and that’s continue to develop our offense. I feel like we made great strides this year – complete wholesale switch from option midline veer scheme to a spread scheme. I think that’s pretty hard to do in one year, and I think we were able to establish the foundation for it. We’re ready to take that thing to the next level. And, defensively, we’re going to keep doing what we’ve been doing for four years.”

In recent years, Breckenridge has a 1-7 record against the Eastland and last beat the Mavericks in 2010, when the teams were in the same district. Since then, Breckenridge has lost to Eastland seven times in a row. With the realignment, Eastland was moved up from 3A-Division 2 to Division 1.

“I think it’s a good rivalry,” Hubble said. “We need to elevate and go get those guys.”

Last year, Eastland had an 8-5 overall record and a 4-1 district record. They lost to Canadian in the Area round of the playoffs. In the regular season, Eastland scored a total of 329 points and allowed 144 points to be scored against them.

The Wall High School Hawks had a 12-1 overall record and a 4-0 district record last year. They lost to Brock High School in the Regional round of playoffs. In the regular season, Brock scored a total of 515 points, while their opponents scored 78. Breckenridge played Wall in 2011 and 2013 in the Bi-district playoffs, losing both times.

The Clyde High School Bulldogs had a 6-5 overall record and a 3-2 district record last year. They lost to Brock in the first round of playoffs. In the regular season, Clyde scored 382 points, and they allowed 262 to be scored against them. Breckenridge last played Clyde in 2014 and won that game 23-16. The Buckaroos’ recent record against Clyde s 5-3.

The Jim Ned Indians had a 9-3 overall record and a 4-1 district record last year. They lost to Wall in the Area round of playoffs. In the regular season, they scored 390 points and allowed 202 points scored against them. Breckenridge last played Jim Ned in 2013, winning 68-19. The Buckaroos’ recent record against Jim Ned is 5-1.

The Early Longhorns had a 3-7 overall record and a 1-4 district record last year. In the regular season, they scored 195 points, while their opponents scored 387 against them.

Of Breckenridge’s 2018 pre-district schedule, all of the teams except Dublin went to the playoffs last year. Comanche lost to Brock in the Quarterfinals, and Brock went on to the championship game, losing to Rockdale High School.

“We’re ready for any challenge. We’re never going to make it about them; we’re always going to make it about us, focus on trying to be the best football team we can be,” Hubble said. “We’ve got a long way to go before we get there, but that’s a good thing. The kids are working their rear ends off, so we’ll be ready.”

The coach said there are about 12 or 13 seniors returning, as well as many of the lower classmen.

“We’ve got a good number of kids coming back. We played a lot of young guys last year, and we have a lot coming back,” he said. “We have a few key spots to fill, but I hope we have key spots to fill every year. I hope we graduate great kids every year; that’s expected. There’s a good base, a good foundation of guys returning. The possibilities will just depend on how good we can get.”

Looking forward to the upcoming season, Hubble emphasized that the team will be sticking to the plan and continuing to work on the basics.

“We’ve got to establish our running game on offense and just continue to develop the concepts of what we’re trying to do in the passing game,” he said. “Kids will slowly get to understanding more and more and more of that as we progress through spring and 7-on-7. The zone and how we block it is completely foreign to our kids, compared to how what we had been doing. As a staff, we’ve got to become better teachers, and then our kids have to understand what it is, exactly, we’re trying to do.

“Defensively, we’ve just got to be better tacklers and not bust assignments and not get lined up right to formation,” Hubble continued. “That’s been something that’s plagued us always. We’ve got to be better teachers and teach our kids better, so they understand exactly what’s going on and they can go out there and play. We’ve got lots of work to do, and our staff has been working on it. Our kids will be better players if we’re better coaches.”

In addition to the football districts, the UIL also released the new volleyball and basketball districts.

In volleyball, the Lady Bucks moved from District 6 to District 7. The new lineup will include Boyd, Brock, Jacksboro, Millsap, Paradise, Peaster and Tolar.

The basketball team remained in District 7 but will face a slightly different set of opponents: Boyd, Brock, Jacksboro, Millsap, Paradise, Peaster and Tolar. The schedule lost Cisco and Eastland and added in Boyd, Jacksboro and Paradise.

Story by Tony Pilkington and Carla McKeown

Cutline, top photo: The 2017 Buckaroo varsity football team, led by Head Coach Casey Hubble walk through the stands before taking on Brock High School last fall. This year, Buckaroos will play Brock in a pre-district game.(Photo by Tony Pilkington/Breckenridge Texan)